St. Anthony, theologian and doctor of the Church, is considered “a worker of wonders and performer of miracles” in other words a thaumaturge! St. Anthony of Padua is prayed to by Catholics all over the world. This Franciscan priest of the 13th Century, attentive to the wounds of the body and soul, helps us to obtain graces, to find a lost object, our faith, love or health. The miracles of St. Anthony have made him very popular and many prayers exist to invoke him and ask for his help.
"Saint Anthony, glorious servant of God, famous for your merits and powerful miracles, help us to find lost things; grant us your help in our trials and shed light on our soul in the quest for the will of God.
Help us to recover the grace which our sin destroys and lead us to the glory promised by the Saviour, we ask you, through Christ our Saviour. Amen”
"Oh great St Anthony, apostle full of kindness, who have received from God the privilege to enable lost things to be found, come to my aid in this moment so that, with your help I may obtain the grace which I am asking for (state your prayer intention), and that I may, thereby, glorify more and more the Lord who operates through you such great marvels. Amen!”
"You seek miracles! Listen:
Overcome is death, destroyed is heresy,
Flee calamities, demons and epidemics
For, through St Anthony all find health.
The sea is becalmed, chains are broken;
Young and old disabled people
Recover vigour and lost objects.
Misery ceases, danger disappears!
You who have received his kindness
Tell it about Padua, Sanctuary of peace!
The sea is becalmed....
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
Now and always,
Through the ages.
Amen"
Already during his lifetime, brother Anthony as he listened and served the poorest, healed souls and bodies. He was canonised one year after his death which is a miracle in itself. The faithful who had come to pray on his tomb in Padua were answered and about forty miracles were counted before he was proclaimed saint. Nothing is impossible to this holy man who held - during an ecstatic moment - the child Jesus in his arms. Prayers exist to ask for his intercession in many situations:
St. Anthony died on June 13th, near Padua in Portugal, where he had spent some of his last years. If it is possible to pray him through a novena (prayer over nine days), Catholics have also dedicated prayers to him around that number 13.
There are also litanies - incantatory and often sung prayers - dedicated to the franciscan: The litanies of St Anthony of Padua.
Allow yourself to be guided and carried by the Saints with the Communities of Hozana.